Eldritch Horror Theatre

”But where did Daddy go?”

The conversation continued, joined by a new, childish voice.

Up ahead, Su Gao remained motionless. Fu Qian was certain she was listening as well.

”He went to The Church. He’ll be back at dawn.”

The original voice answered naturally.

”But when will it be dawn?”

The child didn’t sound too happy about it.

”Very soon. Just sleep quietly for a while, and the sun will rise... The other children definitely won’t last as long as you, so you’ll be the one who gets the prize when the time comes...

”Mommy will sing you a song...”

The brief but evocative conversation quickly ended. What followed was the exact same humming tune they had been hearing all along, accompanied by gentle patting.”We’ve reached the end.”

After listening for a moment, Su Gao reported their situation.

”I can tell.”

For Fu Qian, there was no need to look; he could tell just by listening that they had reached a dead end.

”Right in front of us, there’s a painted door.”

Naturally, the information Su Gao provided next fell entirely outside his expectations.

”Can you try opening it?”

Picturing the scene, Fu Qian naturally asked.

”I should be able to. It gives off a very unique feeling... But if that’s the case, there is indeed a high probability that everything we’ve encountered along the way has been a dream.”

Unbound by conventional thinking, Su Gao’s judgment was quite proactive.

”That makes sense. It also explains why the vision of High-Tier Transcendents like us would be restricted, because the master of the dream believes that what’s inside a coffin shouldn’t be seen.

”Furthermore, the voices we just heard likely indicate that our actions along the way have touched upon some limit of this dream. Taking one more step forward might wake us up.”

Fu Qian agreed with Su Gao’s thoughts, even drawing on his knowledge as a Dream Dominator to explain their current predicament.

Wandering into a dream was nothing strange. The Ark’s state was already ”transcendent” to begin with, not to mention that the underlying rules within the Long Night were likely a complete mess.

”But that means it might be even more dangerous outside, and there might not be a way back.”

Su Gao had no objections to the consultant’s analysis, but she clearly still held some hesitation.

To this, Fu Qian simply chuckled. ”So, are you going in?”

”Yes, but—”

”Then you’d better pull me along a bit, so I don’t bump into the doorframe.”

Fu Qian casually interrupted.

Having not yet achieved her original goal, Classmate Su Gao obviously wouldn’t give up easily.

But by the same token, how could he pass up such a perfect opportunity to glimpse an ancient secret?

If their guess was correct, everything they had experienced so far might have entirely taken place within a child’s Mind World.

He was confident that Excellency Nepheli lacked the courage to come here. For all the pains she took to design this journey, she likely hadn’t made it as far as he had.

”Be careful.”

As he pondered, Su Gao clearly made her decision. With a word of warning, she took one of Fu Qian’s hands.

...

So the very first scene The Ark passed through really might have been the child’s home.

With a slight ripple, both his vision and his mind suddenly cleared.

The suppression on his sight and perception was gone. In that moment, Fu Qian fully understood what it felt like for a blind man to regain his sight; it was as if he had become complete once again.

Through his restored vision, the dim lighting did not stop him from seeing the scene before him clearly.

It wasn’t some gloomy ancient tomb; instead, it looked very lived-in.

Inside the somewhat low-ceilinged longhouse, various pieces of mostly wooden furniture could be seen.

He could easily spot designs that bore a striking resemblance to those from the Land of Giants they had seen on The Ark.

When he placed himself in the perspective of a toddler who had just learned to walk, everything suddenly made sense.

At the same time, in a corner of the longhouse behind a partition curtain, he spotted a wooden-framed bed.

It wasn’t small; clearly, it was meant for a family.

However, the messy bed was currently empty.

Instead, the floor beneath the bed had obviously been dug out, and a rather small coffin was stuffed inside.

...

It was undoubtedly a bizarre setup. Moreover, even though the coffin was tightly built, there was no way it could block the perception of two High-Tier Transcendents.

Amidst the extremely faint humming, the gentle patting was equally clear, except...

”It’s very chaotic... but I can still sense the path we took to get here. There should be a way back.”

Her gaze lingered on the coffin for a brief moment. The next second, Su Gao turned her head to look elsewhere, quickly assessing their current situation.

”Same here.”

Fu Qian nodded. As a dream expert, sensing certain things was hardly difficult for him.

Furthermore, just as they had guessed, the owner of the dream was lying in the coffin over there.

As for why Su Gao had that reaction, the reason was actually quite simple—only the owner of the dream was lying inside.

Listening to the conversation earlier, anyone’s first impression would be that in the dark Long Night, the child’s father had gone out, leaving only the mother to keep him company, and that she had spun a white lie about a competition to coax him into hiding quietly inside the coffin.

But their perception now made it abundantly clear: only a single, frail little body was curled up inside the coffin. The continuous humming had been coming from the half-asleep child the entire time.

The sound of him patting his own legs was the same; he was obviously trying hard to coax himself to sleep.

It seemed that having a mother by his side was, just like that endless coffin tunnel, purely a manifestation of the child’s imagination.

As for why his parents thought it would be better for him to lie in such a bizarre place, perhaps they believed that symbols like death and darkness could protect him?

He had already seen it more than once: the desperate struggles for survival by humans abandoned in the dark of night.

Although all the doors and windows were tightly shut and even boarded up, it still wasn’t difficult to see the sunless and moonless sky outside through the cracks.

It seemed they had truly arrived a thousand years in the past.

”Can you sense anything else?”

Stepping forward, Fu Qian looked out at the dark night—which was much plainer and more subdued compared to the child’s dream—and asked.

In theory, they had truly stepped into the Long Night. However, it felt similar to the time he entered the Ancient Recollection to meet the Blood Clan Progenitor Annalise; they were mere spectators with no need to worry about disturbing anyone.

”There’s also... the tide.”

When questioned, Su Gao stood rooted to the spot. A moment later, her voice took on a peculiar tone.

”An omnipresent tide, washing over everything...”

There was such a thing?

The description of a tide was simply too classic. Fu Qian immediately recalled his past experiences in the Deity Burial Ground, before his attention was drawn to another sound coming from Su Gao—

In just that brief moment, half of her body had once again taken on that White Porcelain texture, as if she had transformed into her Mythical Form as a stress response.

And in the palm she was gazing down at, fine cracks appeared out of nowhere. They were constantly spreading outward, accompanied by a distinct shattering sound.